EXPECTATIONS

It feels good to be back in Mumbai - to see all of our wonderful children learning new things. In some ways it  feels as though I never left, but in two and one half years there has been incredible change, and of course all of them have grown "two feet".

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This blog is about one of our first children, Manda. ( one of the few children with a real birthdate: 27 August 1973)

One of the most frustrating things for a 'helper' or 'teacher' is to see people with the potential to accomplish great things not reach the potential we think they could.
As a 'helper' or 'teacher' we have expectations that our work will accomplish miracles.  We will be able to inspire our children to achieve greatness. 

We must always be aware not to impose our expectations of what we think could or should be the results of our work. 
We must always recognize and applaud the 'small' changes that are made. Small changes can lead to big changes down the road.

Kanjen and her family were one of the first families of One! International.  Kanjen's children were among the first 8 children Tania taught on a mat on the side of Carter road beside the rocks bordering the Arabian Sea, in the spring of 2001.

Kanjen's children, like most of the One! children did not have any school preparation, and Tania started by teaching them how to use a pencil, the concepts of letters and numbers, and how to learn. 

The following was taken from Manda's Give-A-Child-A-Chance story in 2001.

Before Manda joined One! she was a very distant little girl and quite shy.  She didn't seem confident in herself and was greatly influenced by her older brothers.

Manda works very hard.  She writes very diligently and spends the time to get things right.  She won't give up until she understands, and accomplishes what she sets out to do.  Out of all  the children she was the first to be able to recognize and write all of the Devangari script ( the script for the national language Hindi).  She was the first to finish her workbook - much to the chagrin of her best friends.

one year later  - 

Manda is close to literacy and hopefully she can stay focused for a long -lasting education.  Manda has great potential if she keeps her determaination pointed on the positive path.  One hopes to be the helping hand to accomplish this.   

fast forward to 2010 after Manda was married and moved to village.

Manda continued to come and go, back and forth between village and Mumbai.  Every time she went to village  it wouldn't be long before Kanchen and Bhola received a phone call from her crying and clearly unhappy.  For the first few times they would run to take care of their daughter.  After that it was hard to maintain their emotions and they became slightly detached.  They wanted Manda to make a choice and a clear decision.  Family abuse is still all too common in the villages of India.

While in Mumbai Manda would regularly attend school to watch movies, hang out with her friend Reshma and help out wherever she could.  Manda has certainly matured over the last year and seems more stable.

We hope Manda can stand up for herself within the family environment and somehow stop the abuse or find the strength to leave if necessary. 

Manda gave birth to a little girl - Tejal - at the end of May 2010.  All accounts are that Manda is a good mother. She has brought her daughter to the One! school at Khar to meet her One! family.

We expected great things for Manda regarding her development. Those expectaions were not fully realized; however Manda obtained basic literacy, and learned how to cook and clean for herself and a family. We think that Manda also learned about options for change and the importance of education. We think that Manda will have great expectations of her daughter's education when the time comes, and that she will celebrate the accomplishements her daughter achieves, just as we celebrate the woman Manda has become.